Cox Communications has been sued for not doing enough to stop piracy -- at least according to BMG Rights Management of Berlin and Round Hill Music of New York. According to the complaint, the companies claim Cox is well aware of piracy occurring on its network, but is turning a blind eye to the practice of the company's roughly 4 million broadband subscribers. The complaint insists that Cox is aware of "repeat infringement by its subscribers" but is not terminating their accounts because "it would cause Cox to lose revenue."
As a private company, Cox Communications is one of the few companies that refused to participate in the entertainment industry's "six strikes" anti-piracy initiative, which involves piracy counter-measures ranging from throttling a user's connection to temporary filters preventing users from browsing unless they acknowledge receipt of "educational" copyright material.
Though since 2008 we've noted that Cox has had an anti-piracy program of their own in play, which includes repeated notices for infringement. Cox also terminates the accounts of repeat offenders, but the company has told me they believe the total number of booted users accounts for less than 1% of the company's entire customer base.
Both BMB and Round Hill help fund the copyright troll Rightscorp, which has been trying to turn copyright infringement notices into a revenue stream, sending accused pirates letters telling them they can avoid court battles if they just pay a $20 fee. A growing number of smaller ISPs are treating these notices like little more than aggressive spam.
Complaint Cox